Sourdough Karottenbrot

I wanted to bake a seeded bread and incorporate bits of carrot inspired by a bread I had growing up in Germany.  

Now, my loaf is nothing like the Karrottenbrot I had when I was a child... it's better 😃 

It has very different ingredients, it's homemade and it's a sourdough loaf without any additional rising agents.

Since I figured out the magic ratio of all the ingredients it's been my favourite bread to make and it's time I share the recipe and some step by step instructions online.

If you make it, please do let me know how it turns out.

If no one reads or makes this recipe then these instructions are for my husband.  

SPENCER, I know you don't like to read a lengthy recipe and just glance at the ingredient list.  I've written the ingredients with this in mind so you can dump things together starting from top to bottom 😉

This recipe makes 1 loaf of bread.

450 ℉

25 min with lid

20 min without lid

I N G R E D I E N T S:

1/2 cup fed Sourdough Starter

1 cup Water  (I use room temperature filtered water)

I add these ingredients after the starter is mixed with the water:

1 cup Carrots; grated (KitchenAid's 4mm medium shredding blade)

3 cups Bread Flour (King Arthur Bread Flour)

1 Tbsp. Kosher Salt (Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt)

1 Tbsp. Sesame Seeds

1/4 cup Pumpkin Seeds; shelled

I add the Walnuts at the very end of mixing:

1/4 cup raw Walnuts; roughly chopped

P R E P A R A T I O N:

          FEED THE STARTER 

Before I start baking, the sourdough starter needs to be fed.  I generally feed the starter 1 to 4 hours before starting the recipe.  I'm not too fussy about the timing, but I want to see some rising and bubbling from the starter before I use it for baking.  The more active the starter is at the time of starting this dough, the better and faster the overall rise of the bread will be.

This is how I handle the feeding:

You might feed your starter differently, but I do it in such a way that I won't have any sourdough discards.  I feed my starter the day before I plan to eat the bread.  Usually in the afternoon as I like to mix up my dough in the evening so it can have a long fermentation overnight.

I keep a starter that is roughly 1 cup in size and it sits in a lidded glass jar in my fridge.  1 cup of starter is a manageable size that can accommodate almost all recipes that use a sourdough starter.  Most recipes require 1 cup or less.  Since this recipe will use 1/2 cup of starter, I like to feed my mixture with 1/4 cup of flour and about 1/4 cup of water.  Again, the water measurement is not exactly the same every time because a lot of variables (age of the starter, length since last feeding, indoor temperature and humidity) may require me to use either a little less or a little bit more water.  I add just enough water to maintain the same goopy cake batter consistency of the starter.  After mixing that in, I will let my starter sit at room temperature until I need it.  Again, I will only use it after I see quite a bit of rise and lots of small bubbles.  Then it's ready to go 😃

           IN THE EVENING

I prefer to do my baking first thing in the morning, so that I can have fresh bread for breakfast or have it ready for the day that's still ahead.  For this reason, I put together the dough in the evening.  

First, I shred my carrots (usually 2 to get that cup measurement... if I have extra I will keep it in the fridge or freezer to use in my breakfast oatmeal).

I do all my shredding and mixing in my mini KitchenAid stand mixer.  But you could also shred the carrots with a cheese grater and then combine the the dough with a wooden spoon. 

I shred my carrots with KitchenAid's 4mm medium shredding blade.  A hand held shredder /cheese grater will work too, but cutting carrots with a knife will not texturize the carrots enough to work in this recipe (I tried it, and the bread did not come out).  

Shredding carrots will release their sweet juices that will give the bread its unique flavour and color and the shredded pieces work beautifully with the texture of the finished bread.  

Next, I get started with the dough.  In the the bowl of the Kitchen Aid stand mixer, I thin a 1/2 cup of the sourdough starter with 1 cup of water and then I pop the remaining sourdough starter back into the refrigerator. 

The next step is to add the following ingredients:

-1 cup Carrots; grated

-3 cups Bread Flour 

-1 Tbsp. Kosher Salt

-1 Tbsp. Sesame Seeds

-1/4 cup Pumpkin Seeds; shelled

When these ingredients are nicely combined, I add 

-1/4 cup chopped walnuts 

and give it one last mix.  I don't want to mix the walnuts in too thoroughly because walnuts stain the dough and I like a marbled look in my bread.

To prevent the dough from drying out, but also to avoid the use of single use plastic wrap, keep it in the KitchenAid mixing bowl and place a dinner plate on top.  This way the dough can go through its long fermentation for 8-12 hours/overnight.  I keep the bowl on the counter in a warm area. 

(I sometimes use the proofing function on my oven for 2 hours if it is too chilly in my kitchen.  The proofing function provides a constant 80℉.  Additional time and a sunny spot in a window will also help the rise.)

           IN THE MORNING 

I usually find the dough pushing at the bowl's cover, ready to escape it.  At this point, the dough is about three times its initial size and the bubbles inside looks like this. ↓

Lots and lots of bubbles and the stands of gluten are obvious when I pull the dough from the bowl.  

Now, instead of a complicated shaping method, I just fold the dough 10 times.  Afterwards there will be a lot more tension in the dough and it gets significantly harder on the last 2 folds. I don't do more than 10 folds because the dough starts to tear if I continue to force any more.

Next, I flour the dough ball and the cloth napkin for my proofing basket.  I don't own a banneton proofing basket and my husband specifically chose this type of narrow basket for his bread baking projects in order to encourage the dough to rise upwards during the secondary rise instead of spreading outwards into a flat shape.  

And in the basket it goes.

After rising for 40+ minutes in the basket, I heat the empty dutch oven for 20 minutes in a 450℉ oven to get it really hot.  I briefly remove it from the oven onto a trivet in order to dump the risen dough into it.

I score the top of the dough with scissors because this is my preferred method.

In order to achieve a nice sail on the crust, I try to make deep angled cuts.

For best results don't use the angle shown here. Make the cut towards the center of the bread. This baking project was difficult to photograph and I quickly made some poor decisions with this bake.  Oh well, these cuts where not great but it still tasted good.

Next, the hot pot gets stooped over.

And in the oven it goes.

After 25 minutes of baking at 450℉, I remove the dutch oven from the top.  And then I pop the bread back into the oven for another 20 minutes so it can brown up and develop a nice crust.

And here is the finished product after its cooled off and cut open -- all dark brown, crusty, marble-y goodness.

       ♡ Nina